We would like to enlist your support for a committee to pursue a professional administration for Freeport’s city government.
The purpose of our committee will be to examine the prospects of a professionally trained experienced manager for our city. That administration will set budgets and operate our city on a daily basis. The elected city council, led by our Mayor, shall be free to focus their efforts on long-range strategic planning and policy establishment.
In the coming months, it will be our task to harvest as much guidance as we can from resources at NIU’s Department of Public Administration, city management consultants, city managers, and mayors working with city managers in nearby communities. From this guidance, we can structure our committee and formulate strategies for disseminating information throughout our community on the value and importance of professional city administration for Freeport.
The central objective will be to gain the support of our citizens and advance towards a referendum on the November 2008 ballot to change Freeport to a “council-manager” form of government.
The ongoing success of this transformation can be insured by the enthusiastic support of our Mayor, the City Council, and the majority of our citizens as we together move Freeport ahead in the years following November 2008.
Here are four key FAQs.
Q. Who hires the city manager? A. The city council.
Q. Who sets the compensation for the city manager, mayor, and city council? A. The city council.
Q. Who hires the city operations staff and sets their compensation? A. The city manager with the approval of the mayor and city council.
Q. Who establishes the budget for our city? A. The city manager prepares the budget for final approval by the mayor and council.
Internet references sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Manager
http://www.icma.org/main/sc.asp
http://www.mpa.niu.edu/pub_ad/about_us/advisoryboards.shtml
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7 comments:
What about home rule? If the Freeport City Council does not do more, as the legislative branch of City government, a City Manager form of government will have little effect. The City of Freeport, with the concurrence of the City Council has used home rule to keep the public out of public business. How will going to a City Manager alleviate the abuse of home rule authority?
If we are current City Council can't keep Mayor Gaulrapp accountable. How are they going to keep a City manager accountable?
Before switching to a the Committee of the Whole structure, Mayor Gaulrapp was saying publicly that he would not take part in Committee of the Whole meetings. Yet he voted to break the Committee of the Whole tie to move the home rule sales tax increase to the City Council. When I called for a "point of order" Corporation Counsel Sarah Griffin cited Administrative Code 202.05 (b) which basically states that home rule authority allows them to make up the rules as they go.
The City Council just sat there like bumps, like they do most of the time. It was very clear they had no idea how the process was suppose to function. Without a dedicated City Council and the elimination of home rule authority, I don't see how a City Manager could possibly bring more accountability to City Hall.
If posts can't be anonymous, why are the articles?
There are no guarantees that corruption and abuse of power can't extend into a council-manager form of government. It is our hope that through the profession with it's certification and education processes, a city manager is likely to give better council to the council and mayor.
It is the structure of professionalism and the continuity of that professionalism that we value. Presently, there is no continuity in our city government.
By the way, do you know what the mayor and his finance director make? Do you know what may be contained in their resumes-- their qualifications to hold the position of public trust?
What about the abuse of home rule authority. Shouldn't we do what Rockford did 25 years ago and get rid of home rule first? Clearly, the absence of home rule would greatly limit the potential of abuse of power regardless of the type of government Freeport has. If Freeport wasn't home rule the people would have had to vote to approve ALL of these home rule taxes that we are currently saddled with.
Tutty & John Samuel,
Please join us at noon on Tues, the 19th of Feb at Wagner's Business Supply for a meeting with former Rochelle Mayor Bob Gingerich. Bob will talk about how he took his community to a council-manager form of government. FIRE AWAY WITH YOUR QUESTIONS!
Pleas let us know if you can come.
Email your RSVP to freeportprogov@gmail.com.
John Samuel, I enjoyed your letter to the editor in this morning's paper. Keep the heat on GG.
Dave
If you want to change the form of city government, you're going to have to have a reason. The fact that the present mayor plays playground politics and it's "his way or the highway" form of dealing
may placate his fragile ego, but is quite challenging in attempting to get things done for the city. The recent article in the Journal Standard had a great list of names with a lot of very large numbers. I believe they accomplished their goal in making people believe that this is going to cost even more than it should. The letter to the editor by the former mayor had the mayor's salary of an administrator form of government at least twice as high as it should be. The fact that the city administrator would have to answer to George Gaulrapp would be a curse I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. If anything, it is going to have to be structured differently so Gaulrapp has very little input in the running of the city. Very few people have any idea as to how George Gaulrapp likes to run things, and destroy people.
After Gaulrapp won the election, but before he was sworn into office, he promised the community development director (at the time) that he would be retained. So this community development director stopped looking for other positions and actually turned down an offer or two. Then, after George took office, he wasn't hired and was out of a job.
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